Players had say in Osieck departure

[Jeremy Loome]

Whether you agree with him or not, suggesting George Gross is some sports noob is ridiculous. Gross was smuggled out of the eastern block with his family in the late 50's or early 60s and has been a sports writer for the Toronto Telegram and then the Sun for about 40 years. Long-time editor, multiple award winner, etc. etc.

I'm not fond of no-name stories, either, for this very reason: it strains credibility. But the fact is, we all do 'em sometimes and it's been my experience that it's usually -- usually -- for the right reasons. I don't find this story unbelievable at all.

Although I admit to having gotten it third hand (but from sports reporters), it pretty much fits the mood of what most media people had been hearing ever since the Confederations Cup. It came up when Bircham left, it came up when Watson retired and it came up when people opted out of the last Gold Cup. It's not a new position, but it's worth framing it in context: a lot of the differences between Osieck and the players were about poor communciation between the two sides. Let's face it, by Canadian standards, your average German coach could probably come across as pretty autocratic, and things don't generally build well from there.

What we heard was that Osieck's side felt some players didn't take training or playing for Canada seriously, and to someone who was an assistant with the German National Team, that's probably purely unacceptable.

I think his perception, if it was that jaded, was probably wrong; he probably mistook typical Canadian levity for a lack of intensity. But hell, maybe he wasn't wrong. Maybe some of them loved Canada, but didn't take putting the jersey on as seriously as, say, slogging away in the nationwide league. It's also consistent with his disregard of Radzinski and Peschisolido: he hates temperamental behaviour and wasn't going to stand for the idea that the players were doing Canada a favour by showing up.

Gross makes some valid other points; consider Osieck's credentials relative to Canada's prior coaches. Consider the fact that, although we still couldn't get many games, he got us friendlies against Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. In short, variety but not enough of it. He pushed repeatedly for more funding for soccer and for national stadiums. He raised our profile among soccer's executive by working with Fifa and because of his connection to Beckenbauer and the German program. And he won this country's only major soccer trophy in the modern age.(didn't we get gold at the olympics in 1908? I could be wrong about that.)

Having said that, there were obviously some problems. The same wilful pride with respect to coddling players was probably entirely behind

the almost complete absence of Radzinski, Peschisolido, Aguiar and Jazic. I suspect their very strong personalities were seen as too divisive by him. But the hallmark of great coaches is being able to deal with the primadonnas. Every team's got them, from bantam to the pros, right? He just chose to leave them out or put them off. Not a realistic solution with the depth of talent we currently have. You can't be uncompromising about soccer in Canada. At least not yet.

Tactically, there seemed to be little-to-no development. He opted for the most uninspiring 'keep it simple stupid' cross ball/long ball tactics, opting to not even really try and see if Stalteri or De Guzman could be come an effective provider to whatever rag tag frontline we had. He didn't tap the youth program nearly as frequently as he could have. Was Iain Hume never available for those games that saw Kevin McKenna playing as a lone striker up front? Or Elliott Godfrey? Or any number of guys from the A-league who could've at least given it a shot? Ali Ngon played in the youth system and has been fairly prolific in his first three years, so why not give him a shot. Atiba Hutchinson would surely have been a better bet at the bitter end than Dasovic.

I think we all know a bunch of reasons why Osieck's style just wasn't suited to coaching Canada. But I think it'd be a different story at a large club side, where discipline, bench depth and basics can go a long way. I think George made some valid points and, having interviewed a lot of athletes, can tell you that for every nice one, there's one whose drive gets the better of him and turns him into a primadonna. Combine the two, on any level, and it just wasn't going to work.

[beachesl]

"And he won this country's only major soccer trophy in the modern age.(didn't we get gold at the olympics in 1908? I could be wrong about that.)"

Holger coached us to the ONLY major men's soccer trpophy in any age. He did shake things up after 1997, and we owe him a big debt of gratitude for this. Canada (a local team from Galt, part of today's Cambridge, Ontario) won the demonstration soccer competition that also only had two local teams from St. Louis where the 1904 Olympics were held. I believe the Canadian women won the Women's Gold Cup in 1998 (?). The first official competition was at the 1908 Olympics in London, won by Great Britain.

Holger deserves champions, but that doesn't excuse the pathetically written article, even if some Sun readers believe that just being a refugee from the communists gives someone instant credibility. I may not be a journalist, but I recognize abuse of the readers. Gross should leave writing about soccer to his knowledgeable colleagues, like Neil Davidson and Terry Jones. It's not about "opinion". It's like Lorne Gunther of the Black chain writing about issues he knows nothing about just to strut out his fill-in-the-blank ideas.

I don't read the Edmonton Sun very much, but I sincerely look forward to your articles.

[Canuck Oranje]

Hey let's not discourage journalists from writing about Canadian soccer. In fact, we need more writing about it. So we disagree with some of the statements made. Like that hasn't happened before... It's too bad there aren't more articles like this to debate... and to provoke more debate in the media.... Sorry Dreaming again...lol